#southerntier – PorchDrinking.com

As fruitier and juicier IPAs crowd the market, the debate has ensued as to whether this is the best route for the beer style. Personally, I think both can coincide, and I hope that we continue to see the classic more bitter IPAs, as well as the NE-style IPAs, flourish. One excellent example of a fruity (but not over the top) IPA is Nu Skool IPA from Southern Tier Brewing Company.

I started listening to podcasts as a way to kill time at work, and Comedy Bang! Bang! was one of my first. At the beginning, I was completely baffled. Who were these people? What the heck were they yammering on about? There seemed to be punchlines with no setups, setups that went nowhere, stories that started in the middle, and a bevy of bizarre catchphrases. Inexplicably, I continued to listen until… EUREKA! A callback made sense! Before I knew it storylines were coming together, and I was finally on the inside of all those jokes I didn’t understand before.Read More

One of the best aspects of a bottle share is bountiful sampling of new flavors, sharing reviews and basking in memories with friends, while also drinking an insane amount of delicious beers leading to that rewarding, almost necessary hangover the next morning.

Another bonus, especially if you host such an event, is the left over bottles that didn’t get to be enjoyed.Read More

In all honesty, I have never been to this village – yes, village, you heard me correctly – which sits at the very southwestern tip of the state. Because I haven’t experienced the place first-hand, I took it upon myself to do a bit of research on Lakewood, and the following is what I know to be true.

Krampus: an under-appreciated mythic figure during the holiday season. That is, up until recently. We have always received the stories and quaint images of good old St. Nicholas, the jolly fellow who gives the “good” kids gifts in their stockings. Krampus is the imp-like figure that, depending on the European myth, bestows upon the naughty kids bad gifts or even kidnaps them and brings them to his lair. Sounds pleasant…

Thankfully, the Krampus that I will be talking more about today is the complete opposite from our devilish comrade; it is a present provided to us from Southern Tier, and it is the perfect refreshment for any of your December festivities.

I don’t know where you stand on whether it’s acceptable to start drinking pumpkin beers or not, but I’ll tell you I’ve decided that it is definitely okay to start eating them. Southern Tier came to Colorado earlier this year so I quickly snatched up their products, Pumking and Warlock. For the past few weeks they have just been sitting in my fridge, haunting me, daring me to use them. Finally, I caved, and in the best way possible. I figured, why not use them both at once? Since it’s just about fall, I did the most #basicbitch thing I could think of – make pumpkin cheesecake brownies (oh em gee, pumpkin spice lattes!) While they aren’t exploding with pumpkin flavors, they have just enough to make you think, “Damn, these aren’t #basic at all!” That’s exactly what I was hoping you’d say. Cheers to eating your beers.

Southern Tier calls Back Burner an “imperial barley wine style ale.” As it turns out, barley wine is not something hobbits drink. I know, I feel completely betrayed too. It took me, like, a half an hour to get my Frodo costume together. It is, however, a super tasty beer with a respectable alcohol content.Read More